Dreaming in Stereo for April 19, 2017

The good thing about doing a music show is that it gives you an excuse to spend entirely too much time digging around looking for new bands, and chasing down "YouTube recommends" rabbit holes in search of forgotten gems. The latter is how I discovered Sad Lovers & Giants, a London band that only lasted about three years in its initial run, and completely flew under my radar until recently. It's one of those joyous discoveries that reminds you just how much greatness is out there.

Friends of Alice Ivy is another group that I stumbled upon thanks to a friend posting an amazing song on Facebook from the defunct Aussie group Ostia, which lead to my finding FoAI, the new project from Ostia member Amps. One could easily accuse the group of gothiness (and not be entirely wrong), but the ethereal atmospherics and haunting melodies will draw you in whether or not you go in for the black mascara (or however the kids are doing it nowadays).

And this seemed as good a time as any to have a special focus on the compilation album Alternative F/acts. Put together by the guys at DKFM, it's 18 tracks from a nice variety of shoegaze and 'gaze-like bands featuring some pretty stellar groups, and with proceeds going to the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. Unlike a lot of "benefit" comps (especially some of those godawful ones from the 1990s), this is a solid collection of music that's definitely worth adding to the collection.

And now, on to the show...


Beach House - Majorette - Thank Your Lucky Stars - Sub Pop
DIIV - How Long Have You Known? - Oshin - Captured Tracks
Thrushes -Skywave - Night Falls - Birdnote Records
Wildhoney - My Disguise - Wildhoney EP - self-release
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Planning for Burial - Warmth of You - Below the House - The Flenser
Amberhaze - 1994 - The We Saw the Stars Again - KityWu
Daydream Machine - And I Love Her - Twin Idols - Picture in My Ear
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Fight Bite - Charlotte Iris - Fight Bite - self-release
Cranes - Réverie - Loved - Dedicated
Julianna Barwick - Nebula - Will - Dead Oceans Records
Area - Why Should I Worry - The Perfect Dream - Projekt
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Mercury Rev - Coney Island Cyclone - Yerself is Steam - Mint Films


Panda Riot - Gold Lines - Alternative F/acts - DKFM
Angel Falls - Touch the Sun - Alternative F/acts - DKFM
Fawns of Love - Please - Alternative F/acts - DKFM
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Friends of Alice Ivy - Wycca - The Last Days of Fenwick - self-release
Vivian Fantasy - Strawberry Moon - Serial Experiments 1: Pink Moon - self-release
Soundpool - Makes No Sense - Mirrors in Your Eyes - Killer Pimp
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The Chameleons UK - In Answer - Strange Times - Geffen
Kitchens of Distinction - Drive That Fast - Strange Free World - A&M
Sad Lovers & Giants - Colourless Dream - Epic Garden Music - Midnight Music
The Mighty Lemon Drops - Where Do We Go From Heaven - Laughter - Sire/Reprise
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A Thousand Hours - Dawn - Alternative F/acts - DKFM


And here's the Ostia song:


And the band Area (featured in hour 1) was one I discovered in high school, when a girl I knew let me borrow a tape of some music her brother in L.A. had sent her (meaning, of course, that it was far cooler than anything we'd have back in the Midwest). One side of the tape had the Area album, the other had another band that I listened to briefly and wrote off as being too weird and noisy and not very good. That band?


Needless to say, my opinion has changed in the intervening years. Ah, the folly of youth.